PROPERTY OWNERS FOOTING BILL FOR METH CLEANUP

CLINTON - Clifton Moneymaker never imagined his tenants would turn his four-bedroom mobile home into a hazardous waste site.

"We had never heard of meth labs," said Moneymaker, a 76-year-old retiree who relies on the $500 a month he got from renting the trailer in East Tennessee.

Many rural property owners like Moneymaker are getting stuck with cleanups and liability after government-paid contractors remove the contaminated hardware and utensils used to cook the addictive stimulant.  Owners of the affected property bear the costs of tearing out and cleaning carpets, floors, walls and ceilings saturated with chemical and acid vapors.

Even worse, federal environmental officials say they don't typically monitor meth-contaminated properties after the initial cleanup, and state agencies have no rules for follow-up inspections to make sure properties are safe for the next tenant.

McMinn County Sheriff's Department Lt.  Billy Farmer said there is no federal or state law that says property owners have to notify anyone about a previous methamphetamine contamination.  Moneymaker's tenants were arrested last fall for cooking meth in the trailer.  The couple lost custody of their three children, and agents marked the property with hazardous substance signs.

But Moneymaker said no one would tell him what he had to do to rent the property again.  In November, he agreed to let a couple live in the trailer rent-free while cleaning it.  The couple, who asked not to be identified, continues to live there with a young child.

Dean Mayberry, a real estate broker in Putnam County, said he spent tens of thousands of dollars repairing and cleaning a rental house after agents arrested the tenant in a meth lab raid.

"We had to tear it plumb down to the two-by-fours, had to replace the insulation and the plumbing - the faucets had been burned by the acid," Mayberry said.  "I finally sold it for $70,000, and I didn't make any money."

In McMinn County, agents have twice arrested customers cooking meth at a motel off Interstate 75.  The motel owner declined requests for an interview about if, or how, he cleaned the rooms.

In some communities, notices of the contamination are attached to deeds but not everywhere.  Nadean Cunningham, register of deeds in McMinn County, said she didn't know anything about contamination notices.

The recipe for meth can include ephedrine and pseudoephedrine from cold tablets, red phosphorous from matchbook strike plates, ether from engine starter, Red Devil lye, iodine and sulfuric acid from drain cleaner.

Exposure to the vapors and residue can cause respiratory problems, headaches and nausea.

Nationwide, government-paid contractors cleaned up meth-cooking rigs at more than 7,700 locations in 2003.  Tennessee had 1,083 cleanups - more than any other state.  U.S.  taxpayers spent more than $37 million on meth lab cleanups in 2002-2003.  Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman Rusty Payne said the costs and liability questions for property owners are part of the drug's "ripple effect."

"There is the human cost, what it does to children of meth abusers and what it does to real estate values in neighborhoods ...  whether in Tennessee or Missouri or anywhere else."

Ed Childress, a DEA special agent in Washington, said the Environmental Protection Agency has "generalized widespread standards" for cleanups of meth-contaminated property "but underneath it can become more complex."

"It is a very murky situation," he said.

Childress said property owners can be required to pay for removal of several feet of topsoil at a location where people making meth poured out the chemicals.

After the lab is removed "what is left over is a contaminated site," Childress said.  "In every situation we send letters to the local government and health department and EPA."

He said an owner who "does not decontaminate that property, they could be found liable for passing on down a contaminated property."

Don Rigger, chief of emergency response for EPA's Atlanta-region, said the agency does not typically monitor cleanups of meth contamination beyond government-paid contractors removing the containers and chemicals.  EPA employees do very few lab cleanups, which he said can cost as much as $25,000.  Anything else is left to the property owner.

"We are sort of the safety net," Rigger said.  "Local and state organizations ask us for assistance generally ...  or a citizen, if they feel like they are not getting what they want."

Tennessee legislators decided weeks ago that with no extra money available they weren't sure what to do about meth.  Gov.  Phil Bredesen has appointed a task force to make recommendations by Sept.  1.  Rep.  Charles Curtiss, a Democrat from Sparta, said he will propose a law to quarantine all meth labs until they are cleaned up by contractors approved by the state.

Curtiss said a young couple in Warren County bought a house without knowing there had been a meth lab inside and "mold started growing out of the walls and light fixtures.

"Ultimately they had to move.  They didn't recover anything," he said.

McMinn County Sheriff Steve Frisbie said his officers send letters to property owners and health, environmental and property registry agencies every time they raid a meth lab.  Frisbie said he has received calls from people who want to refurbish meth-contaminated buildings.

"We tell them you enter in at your own risk."